SMART-MET - Flight Safety of Small Aircraft under Adverse Meteorological Conditions

Abstract

Three main topics are dealt within the project SMART-MET (Flight Safety of Small Aircraft under Adverse Meteorological Conditions): An attractive use case for small aircraft are airport shuttles between urban or suburban areas. However, the required vertiports for eVTOL can frequently only be installed near conventional runways such that they can’t be operated independently from wake vortices of other aircraft. In SMART-MET criteria for acceptable wake vortex encounters shall be developed for various small aircraft. A wake vortex warning system for vertiports WSWS-V at large airports shall be developed and demonstrated consisting of the elements wind and wake vortex prediction (machine learning) as well as the developed encounter criteria. The risk of fatal flight accidents in consequence of ice accretions is particularly relevant to small aircraft. Flight safety can be significantly enhanced by monitoring the atmospheric conditions und ice accretions utilizing advanced sensors to warn the pilot at an early stage or to automatically activate de-/anti-icing systems. However, conventional icing protection systems are challenging for small aircraft because of their high energy consumption. Therefore, developments of innovative approaches for energy-efficient icing sensors and de-/anti-icing systems are required to ensure safe and economic operation of small aircraft. Meteorological effects have a significant impact on the operational efficiency and safety of small aircraft. Weather influences impacting safe operations are identified and the limiting values are determined, whereby the quantification of the time share of operability on different flight routes is relevant. It is examined how meteorological influences affect the availability of small aircraft. In addition, the necessary adaptation measures to maintain flight safety in a changing climate that has a negative impact on safe operations are determined.